Monday, February 20, 2012

Shooting, shooting and even more shooting

Yes, that is what I've been doing!

On Saturday I drove up to Shooting Buddy's place (400kms north) and after a cuppa or two we had a chat about what we were going to do that evening.

I suddenly remembered that the local Shotgun club meet on the third Saturday of the month, and as this was the third Saturday of the month we might be in luck. Shooting Buddy gave the secretary a call only to be told that there was no shooting on that night. Half an hour later he rang back to say that actually there was going to be some shooting on, commencing at 7.30pm.

So we heading across, sans guns - as Shooting Buddy's shotgun was still in storage in Perth - and got there about 7pm. The gate was open and the lights were on but we couldn't spot any people. So we parked in something that looked like a car park and waited. Another four wheel drive turned up and we introduced ourselves to the occupants only to discover that they too were visitors and had no idea of anything either.

Eventually we located some club members (they had been down at the range setting up) and after chatting for about 45mins (and troubleshooting one of the traps) the shoot was going to start.

I've not shot trap much before - couple of tries but never a match and never at night. However, one of the club members had a Beretta over and under 12GA shotgun that he was willing to lend me (and a shooting vest), he found me 100 shotgun shells so I thought I would give it a go.

Now, to set the scene, we're in the middle of salt lakes, at night, abit with lights, HIGH WIND and fluro traps being flung at high speed from FIVE different directions. Add to this FIVE shooting positions (you shoot at five clays from each shooting position). So all-in-all I sucked! Seriously! From the first 25 traps I got ONE. I did improve greatly by the second 25 when I got 5! However, it was at this point that I decided to gracefully bow out. I had shot 70 rounds and my shoulder was KILLING ME! So I just sat back (well stood - there weren't any seats) and observed the other shooters finishing off the match.

It was a lot of fun - even though I was so hopeless at it - so much fun in fact that I joined the club. I guess now I'll probably need to get a shotgun!

We left the club at about 10pm and decided that rather than return home and crash we'ld go out to the farm and see what animals were out and about. The farm was only 30kms up the road so not far. We had just pulled in the gate, got the spotlight set up and the guns organised when we spotted a large rabbit ... I got it! We then drove around and spotted 4 foxes - but they were all too far away to shoot at - then we came across another large rabbit - so took that one too. Another fox was spotted, which I actually took a shot at, but missed :( As it was now after midnight we decided to call it a night and head home.

I'm looking forward to getting back out there and getting some of those foxes!

Sunday morning saw us up relatively early to head to another gun club - pistol this time. The club shoots WAPA style shooting - standing still, 25m from the target and shooting 5 rounds in 5 mins!?! You repeat this four times. Not sure what was wrong with me (maybe a sore shoulder?) but I seriously sucked at this too! There were only three of us shooting and I came third! But it was good to get the pistol out and have a go.

It was then time to head back to Perth to put the guns back in the safe.

However, today at work I was surprised to see one of our branch managers there. We've spoken about shooting before but the timing has never worked. However, today when I asked him if he wanted to come up the range after work he was really interested.

Logistics was a bit of a challenge as Shooting Buddy had come back to Perth with me and had my car and of course my guns were at home etc etc. Anyway managed to short the issues out and ended up at the range at around 5pm.

He had never shot before - never even seen a real live gun - so we started with my Ruger 22/45, progressed to my 9mm and then another member who was up there practising let him have a go of his .38 race gun! ... And he also demoed a IPSC style stage to the newbie. I then brought the Tuffy out (.410) and he LOVED that. So much so that he shot off most of a box of ammo (I think he'll be another one with a sore shoulder tomorrow). He then finished off the 80 rounds of 9mm ammo I had and the 80 rounds of .22.

I think he had fun!

So now I've got to do some gun cleaning and reloading in preparation for heading to the range again on Friday for some seriously needed practise!